Grrl Power #442 – Fablupus
I’m still vacation, but I’ll be back Friday. I’m posting this from my phone cause I don’t trust the open wi-fi at the hotel, https or no. Hopefully I don’t screw anything up or get too many auto concubine errors.
Ingsol raises a fair question really. Sydney does seem to have an effect on those around her. Of course the actual 4th wall penetrating reason is that it’s funny if she’s just super disarming. In canon, there’s probably no aura involved. Probably. The idea of a stupidity aura is pretty amusing to me, or even better, an intelligence vampirism field. Some super who is more intelligent the more people he’s around. When the team needs to invent something really complicated like a stargate or a time traveling thong, they buy him superbowl tickets. Of course everyone in attendance gets a few IQ points shaved off for the duration, but, well, not to dump on sports fans too much, but who’d really notice, am I right?
In Sydney’s case, it might make more sense if she was a reverse concentration vampire. She gets more distracted the more people are around. Oh, wait, that’s how regular ADHD works. Ok, maybe she leaches concentration from others, but, instead of benefitting from it, the extra concentration just gets beamed into space.
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At the end of the photo session, the icing on the cake might have been if Sydney had said to Barkly, “I’ve worked with better, but not many. Thank you!”
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConfusionFu
Confusion Fu powered by ADHD Awesomeness.
The GURPS RPG has a skill for that: Rapier Wit.
:)
It’s simple, really; by the time we’re adults we have a mental “social interaction” toolkit with a set of preset responses to those around us; they send certain signals, we send back the appropriate ones without even thinking about it.
It’s like vehicles: you’ve got your turn signals, brake lights, and the annoying reverse-beeping that trucks do when backing up. Driving along, you observe-and-respond without even interrupting your texting (kidding, don’t text and drive).
But what if the car in front of you is signalling right from the left hand turn lane? That’s a little odd, and you’ll hesitate and wonder if he’s trying to get out of the left-turn lane to go straight through the intersection. Your normal observe-and-respond is broken. What if the car turns pink? Spins around without forward motion and then tries to merge into the opposite-bound lane? Turns into a mecha and uses the crosswalk? The number of other drivers freaking out is going to completely destroy the flow of traffic and may cause fatalities.
Sydney is that car.
Thank you, Dave, for showing us a werewolf attempting Blue Steel
Not really familiar with the term. What is “Blue Steel?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D519hT7-ytY
*hugs Uhl*
Thank goodness, somebody else who avoids Ben Stiller movies! Sorry Ben, if you are a fellow reader. Your style is just not my cup of tea.
I knew i liked you Yorp! *grabs box of yorpie snacks* have a few from me. * offers box*
*Psst, who’s Ben Stiller?*
The guy Barkley is impersonating, in the second-to-last panel.
Hey, Barkley, why the long face?
Yeah. I was better off not knowing.
he’s the bad actor in Omikapsi’s YouTube link just above Yorp here.
Oooh! Yorpie Snax!
*gobble gobble, yum yum* fanku *snarf chomp munch*
I watched it for Will Ferrell, not Stiller.
That and the David Bowie cameo ;)
Feral is the lower than Borat’s sling-kini (and smellier) on the talent scale, Stiller is okay (some of the time) but Feral is never funny any of the time!!
I liked Ben Stiller better as Mr. Furious in Mystery Men
Everything is better with more Bowie.
So, the ultimate experience would be watching David Bowie playing cowbell.
I offer as refutation the “film” Labyrinth, which co-starred David Bowie’s Package in Tight Leather Pants. Nobody needs to see that.
Well okay, you got a point there. Straight guys like myself could do without that detail. That said the rest of Bowie was awesome in his role as the Goblin King so it evens out. Also there are many others who like the famous package very much.
I like that movie myself, and felt that David Bowie contributed a very good, unique performance. I am a lifelong D&D player, but since seeing that I find it hard to picture goblins, without them having a king or queen, as their leader.
To the extent that I think it has influenced our culture. Since that you most usually see goblins portrayed in a monarchy (albeit often only of tribal scale). Flaky Pastry’s Nitrine being one example, in our favourite medium, which is dear to my heart.
I will spare you the list, but various other examples spring to mind.
Now contrast that to Legend, with Tom Cruise.* That came out the year before Labyrinth, yet the relationship with their leader was not that of a monarch. The demonic individual they followed they did so purely because he was overwhelmingly powerful. Left to their own devices, they sought to userp the power, at the first opportunity that presented itself.
They owed no loyalty, but lived in a state of anarchy.
True there are elements of both societies in each other. Goblins are typically shown as being chaotically inclined, after all. But there are differences which can be observed between the two, none-the-less.
* Another film that I like, but which folks often talk disparagingly about the lead. Something which I feel lis unjustified. I think folks are just not happy seeing these actors outside of their normal roles and familiar environments. The performances they give are good, in my opinion.
Goblins are very different in different stories. In Labyrinth they are basicaly the fair folk who have tricked people and stolen kids for centuries. Jared is the classic trickster archetype rather than royalty.
Now I made myself sad thinking about Bowie…
I would not call that fair! Poor little kiddies. Not to mention that the parents did not even get paid.
We aught to raise a formal complaint with the Faerie Association Youth Envoy!
Hey! Labyrinth and his tight pants were *the* best movie for me to watch when I was 14. I think my friends and I wore out my VHS (the fact I loved fairy tails and read Terry Jone’s book first may have something to do with this as well)
Would you be happier if it was Michael Jackson, Prince or Sting? They were the only other candidates for that role
Not only that, can you imagine someone else singing this?
The ladies already have Sting in Dune ;)
I hope he was called Scorpion, on set.
Fair enough. However, Jackson decided to live the role instead!
Nice explanation. Sydney is the blue Prius that stands up at the intersection and turns into a pink mecha to cross the street.
I have a unique reaction like this…
Whenever someone says “phenomena”, I automatically reply “doot do di do do”.
Damn Muppets…
mana mana…doot do do doooo… now you’ve got it in my head.
Mahna Mahna
Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjcb7w1Y-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8uH26GlWeo&feature=youtu.be&t=54s
Thank you, had never seen that version before
I respond with the chorus here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQsd7y5YbZw
Once as a social experiment I responded to everyone who greeted me with “How are you doing?” with a wide smile and “Not well. Not well at all.” Watching their expression as they tried to figure out which cue to respond to was very entertaining.
No experiment needed in Bulgaria. It is a nation where they shake their head* when saying yes!
Amusingly I find that there is similar confusing in reverse mind. Because the Bulgarian grammar varies depending on the gender of the subject, their brains are structured to expect a sentence to follow those rules. Yet English as-a-first-language speakers may only cobble together pigeon Bulgarian. Using Bulgarian words, but English grammar.
Then, to cap it off, the foreigners omit or randomise the gender elements. This most often happens with the numbers. You are meant to apply a gender to the word you pick for each number. One and two both have male and female versions. Many British ex-pats though have not learnt the rules for how to tell if something is male or female (is a loaf of bread a boy or a girl?). So either always use the masculine, or just randomly pick one.
Which very often results in the listener simply failing to understand what they are referring to. It cannot be the loaf of bread that the customer is pointing at. Because bread does not have the gender that they are using. Perhaps they mean a bread-like substance, that is not on display, which has the opposite gender?
* This is just how foreigners tend to interpret it mind. What they are actually doing is rocking the head, from side to side. Which uses different muscles and, if you are paying attention, can be distinguished from a shake of the head. The usual implication of rocking the head is to indicate “so so”. So the combination should be read as “Yes, on the whole”. Yet they sometimes use it simply as an affirmative. Confusing the heck out of tourists.
But it corroborates the fact that people do expect familiar cues. So if expecting either a nod for yes, or a shake for no, they try to pigeon hole any body language into whichever category it most closely resembles. And if the resultant box does not match the dialogue, then confusion ensues!
That’s a bit like french then. We use gender for object names.
Table and chair are female.
Car is complicated as we say “une voiture” (female) or “un char” (male).
English speakers trying french sometimes use the wrong pronoun but it rarely lead to confusion. It just sound weird.
Mental image: Sydney trying to learn french would be pretty funny. Stressful for the teacher though.
Yea Bulgarian has a number of French elements in it* I have also picked out various Italian, Greek and Dutch commonalities. I do not know any Turkish mind, but there is bound to be a bunch of that in the language, given the Ottomans occupation of the region, for so long. And ignoring, of course, the other Slavic countries, as they have heavily interrelated languages.
The majority of English influence is clearly modern in origin. Technology terms, for instance. But also sports terms, slang and popular culture terms (eg from songs and movies).
* Or possibly the other way around, depending on where they originated from. This region is the land gateway to Europe (along with Greece) through which most of the migrations of peoples and innovations, from Africa and the Middle East, travelled
As such it had amongst the most ancient civilisations in Europe. So, despite how influential French has been on European language, in general, it would not surprise me if some of these elements appeared earlier in Bulgaria (as it is now). The same with the other languages (barring the clearly modern things, like computer terms).
My own response to “How are you?” is typically “As well as can be expected” or, in specific cases / moods, “If you don’t watch out, I’ll tell you”.
It almost always amuses the asker, and does tend to shift dialogue from being something that people just ask automatically.
What I find perplexing is that (in America at least) most people who ask that question don’t really want to hear the answer…For some reason. I’d guess they’re just trying to be polite without actually committing themselves to learn the answer.
So, I usually reply with a short, but honest, answer: “I’m still functioning & mobile. I suppose that counts for something.”
So I’m effectively throwing the ball back into their court…If they really want to know the answer, I’ll ask them if they have the next couple of hours to spare to get the details…
;)
One thing that REALLY gets me on this front is what telemarketers and their ilk do – phone up, ask for you by name then straight-out ask “How are you?” without identifying themselves at all. Presumably, this is to try and engage you on a personal level, but it always ALWAYS just annoys the hell out of me.
My response in this case is along the lines of “You know my name. Now kindly tell me who you are BEFORE you ask personal qiestions”. It does tend to upset their script considerably.
There’s two things that annoy me more than telemarketers:
(1) Telemarketers that have a computer call you and say “please hold for this important message”. If it isn’t important enough for a living person to call me, your “important message” isn’t important enough for me to listen to.
(2) Scammers. Especially the ones that want to remotely access my computer to remove a virus that they allegedly detected. “Sir… I fix computers for a living. I own my own repair shop. If there was an actual virus on my computer, I would have detected it long before anyone else, and fixed it. You are not getting remote access to my computer so you can try to hold my files hostage. Try running your scam on some other poor schmuck.”
In regards to #1 above, there’s a humorous anecdote from when I was working for Texas A&M in Commerce, and had Sprint as my phone service.
Well, for four days in a row, I got a phone call from AT&T saying “please hold for this important message”, and I just hung up on it.
On day 5, a human finally calls me and says, “I’ve noticed that you have not been listening to our messages.” So I told them, “Well, yeah, your computer keeps calling me and putting me on hold, so I just hang up on it.”
She said, “You can’t do that!”
I said, “Watch me,” and hung up on her.
2) Practice, when talking with someone you know, to ensure you can find a distance from your phone where you can be heard, but where it sounds like you have moved away. Then, the next time you get such a call, say “Excuse me one moment” and step away to your spot. “Hello, detective, the scammers are on the other line, please start your trace.”
Then go back to the call, and if they are still there, keep them talking, for some time, and (just in case they missed the first soto voce call) repeat the process with periodic interruptions, and comments such as “the scammers are still on the line, how much longer do you need, to complete the trace?”
Whatever you do though, do not ham it up. Don’t laugh. Do try to keep them on as long as possible, if they do not hang up. Sell it that you are trying to sincerely listen to their gubbins. Don;t give the impression you are pulling a prank.
The main aim is not to get rid of them just this time. You want to get onto the scammers “do not call” list!
My driving instructor used to say: “the less surprises you give, the less surprises you got”, meaning that abiding to the rules is the safest way.
That turned to be true in personal life as well.
well, she does have a couple orbs unaccounted for… Maybe one has a passive effect that doesn’t require contact?
Aww, how cute.
*rubs Grahamf, on head*
Harumph ahh mmm…. no contact orb. Yea. They both already have skill points in them. So it seems likely that either or both do have passive effects, that may work without being held.
Yeah, i was starting to think something similar. Like a small pulse of her ADHD looping through a brain not used to it and thereby causing a small and un-noticable but not inconsiderate confusion and tendency to act in ways a person normally would not.
Perhaps one orb transmitts her ADHD to every nearby brain.
All the orbs have a mini branch which is annotated different, but the only one with a point added to it is one of the unknown orbs. Maybe that mini branch is the ‘works without contact’ feature.
That would be great for the flight and shield orbs !!!
We already know she control the orbs with her mind so activating them without contact is not too much of a stretch.
Although I think she was confusing people even before she had the orbs so it doesn’t mean much.
Can anyone imagine Barkley wearing long johns, with his tail hanging out the square hole?
So…somewhere, a bunch of aliens are now SUPER focused on their task?
What? No Right Said Fred references?
Doesn’t work, as he is “Too sexy for New York”.
He is too sexy for New York.
Too sexy for New York.
Too sexy for Yorp.
Thank goodness!
And he is too sexy for your paws.
Too sexy for your paws.
Too sexy for Jaws.
Thank goodness!
Bup, bup, bup! Pay attention!
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1682
Well remembered!
Hard to forget.
1. Blue steel. ROFL
2. I thought Dabbler had the stupidity aura.
3. …What was I thinking of? Crap, now I’m affected.
I have never thought of Dabbler as being… ahh, sorry, being a bit slow there. Yea, you are right. She makes them think with their balls.
Maybe that is what makes Halo so gifted, at times?
Somehow I think no one will be able to say ”Ball of Intelligence”, with a straight face.
maybe one of the orbs can project a ‘Cone Of Silence’?
but only if Sydney is Smart.
I think she is. Mind you, she also knows how to inflict a little Kaos.
That effect may cause ’99’ problems.
But a “Hymie” ain’t one.
Oddly though, Sydney seems to be concentrating really well on the task at hand… conducting the Barkly photo shoot. Maybe they should have let her go… she’d have gotten bored in another minute anyway and moved on to Ingsol…
Actually, ADHD people CAN zero in and focus like that, sometimes to the exclusion of paying attention to other things – in fact when it goes to the latter, it’s called “Hyperfocus”, and we’re really prone to it sometimes. Interesting or novel things (such as a werewolf) are the kinds of things hyperfocus normally happens with. It’s the OOH SHINY reaction that is sometimes mocked, only up to eleven as it were.
This makes sense when you consider a variant of the gene DRD4, which has been seen to correlate with “novelty-seeking behavior” as well as with addiction-prone personalities (e.g. it may play a role in some people’s alcoholism), was found in at least one study to be found universally in people who received ADHD diagnoses (though not everybody with the gene gets ADHD, supposedly everybody with ADHD might have the gene, if that study is anything to go by).
Yeah, not everyone with DRD4 has ADHD, but everyone with ADHD has DRD4
The Absent-minded Professor is an example of the other end of ADHD: they get so focused on their work they forget to eat or sleep or have bowel movements (they eat, if someone puts food within reach, but they forget that they ate)
Not smart reading this at work. I ended up ROFLMO so hard, my co-workers were also sporting the confused look.
:-D
Silly Sydney, you can’t block throwing stars with Blue Steel, you need Magnum for that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao31lQuYPjE
In response to your statement on sports fans, I’m not sure how that’s insulting sports fans. IQ is less inteligence and more problem solving, and saying that watching sports doesn’t utilize it enough to notice a, say, 2% loss isn’t really that big of a deal.
That said- I actually do think people would notice something was just a tiny bit off. Not because of the audience, even a -10% iq wouldn’t be a big deal when watching sports for most audience members. (Not all- but even those would dismiss it as an off-day.) But the strategy of the actual teams would be a little worse, missed or misinterpreted strategies from the opposition, and anyone watching would notice these little mistakes, even if they didn’t know why.
So, just make sure it’s a Detroit Lions game. Nobody’d notice. :D
Agreed. An aura would likely affect all in attendance, including players and coaching staffs. While the fans present may not notice a change, most sporting events are televised. “Armchair quarterbacks” is an American football term that refers to fans who sit home and watch, commenting on what they would do differently to win if they were the ones calling the plays or making strategies. Many of them are drunken morons who wouldn’t know the first thing about planning a game, but there are some people(myself included) who pay enough attention to the game to know when someone is being stupid without reason(you’re only a few yards from the end zone, and you DON’T hand off to Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch?! In the Super Bowl?!!) and call it out as it is happening. It would be noticed.
Those who disparage sports fans/players/coaches as simple minded are ignorant fools who simply dismiss what they cannot understand. Part of the NFL draft process these days is testing the players’ intelligence. Those who test poorly are often not drafted, despite their many muscles or athletic talents. It doesn’t matter if you’re the fastest or the strongest; if you’re not in the right place, at the right time, doing your part in the play as designed or reading the change in motion as it happens, you’re worthless to the team.
The thing is the aura is transmissible through the TV screen, so it affects all observers.
Funny concept though it is, there is actually something similar. There is an aura which affects the libido, of sports fans. If their team wins, their libido goes up, if they lose, it goes down. With quite significant differences. So, if you are trying for kids, be sure to support a team that is on a winning streak!
Wich is probably why we can expect to see Dabbler on big sport events feasting on the massive libido aura when the home team wins.
Wow! Just…………….WOW! I needed this level of stupidity today!
“Okay, now do confused!”
That panel made me laugh out loud!
I have it! The orbs are powered by distraction, & they latched on to Sydney because she has a natural concentration-dissipating aura, “Proximity ADHD.” The more one remains in her presence, the more concentration she wicks away, feeding the orbs with—oh, shiny! …what was I saying again?
“auto concubine error”?
A play on autocorrect errors. “Damn Autocourtail!!”
At the Cheezburger website, also known as “autocowrecks.”
First people these get sent to? Jacob fans.
“Ok, maybe she leaches concentration from others, but, instead of benefitting from it, the extra concentration just gets beamed into space.”
Shhhh stop telling everyone what I do. That’s like, my secret superpower for realzies.
You are responsible for blondes? Darn you!
More like irresponsible.
She leeches concentration from others, and it all goes to fuel her Overdrive gauge. Now, if she unlocks that Overdrive -> AP ability she’ll do great!
Been a while since a comic made be literally laugh out loud. This did.
Yeah…… no out-of-the-ordinary fields of effect required. People will do incredibly stupid or silly things in public when playing with a baby, or when out with friends being silly, even if they don’t act that way normally. Heck, most people when around someone behaving silly are more likely to behave more relaxed, if not outright silly as well, just as people are more likely to be calmer when something bad is happening if someone else acts calm. If you have the dominant attitude (a.k.a you keep that attitude without being significantly influenced by others around you), people are likely to react to it. Attitude is as contagious as a yawn.
Gotta love those auto concubines.
For you.
Ohh, it’s the Dabblermobile.
If you see the Dabblermobile’s Hypnoboobs in your rear-view mirror, you WILL get into an accident…
Kind of gives a new meaning to the phrases ‘rearended’ and ‘pile up’, doesn’t it?
Colission (rear and/or frontal), dangerous curve ahead, etc…
…You wouldn’t really want to know what happens to the bone in a T-bone collision…
…Or would you?…
this strip is such gold. Sydney’s mid-air pivot and orb management skills, the continued excitement over werewolf and getting him to pose. maybe it’s like that chart xkcd did for cat proximity. Sydney is so small and adorable she has a similar proximity effect as a cat. and also Ingsol being weirded out by Maxima laughing.
With how serious Maxima is most of the time it is probably very hard to catch her laughing while in function.
Also, I think he is more weirded out by how sudden she went from laughing and back to serious mode.
Yup, it was the sudden change that startled him
I love your stuff, love this page… but the grab in panel 3 is her right hand missing a thumb.
Ahh, that must have been the second unit. DaveB was probably packing, for his holidays, when he realised that the page needed a shot of Halo activating the Fly Ball. So he would have passed that to the 2nd team. All they needed to do was a close up of her hand grabbing it.
But the continuity guy clearly did not compare it to the dailys that Dave had shot previously. Had the bloke done his job right, he would have seen that she needed to use her right hand. So, whilst you are correct to say that there is a problem. It is not a missing thumb, it is the wrong hand! They filmed Sydney’s left hand, in error.
Doubtless Sydney, and the rest of the team, are also taking their holidays somewhere too. So I should not think they could call her in for a re-shoot, at this late date. And Dave will still be on his vacation, so there will be no opportunity for him to cartoonify it, in any event.
I would say that too, except that the hand shown doesn’t have a bandage and has a yellow sleeve. Ergo, right hand.
It looks like they mirrored the closeup of the hand for some reason (common error in either shooting or editing).
Thing is that anatomically it is clearly a left hand. You can see the bit of bone, at the bottom of the forearm, which creates a bulge through the skin. That protrusion is always on the outside of the arm. You do not have a corresponding one on the inside (without an unusual condition, which Sydney does not have, in any event). As it is visible to us, on this side of the arm, we must be seeing a left arm.
Likewise the part of the palm we see , has the distinctive shape of the outer side of a hand, which is dissimilar to that on the inner. Finally the pattern that knuckles form allow you to determine if you are looking at a left or a right hand. Each is offset from the fingers, and each other, in a distinctive way.
Even if somebody has been mutilated, and has lost their thumb, all the above features would still allow us to determine whether it was a left hand or a right hand.
One of Dave’s great strengths is that he draws anatomically correct figures. In this case though, such can be used to show a continuity error.
Not that such matters, in the least. The action still flows magnificently, and the story is conveyed beautifully. But it does give us something to talk about, none-the-less.
You know, we’ve seen Syd pull pom poms from out of nowhere; https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/370 What I’d like to see now is her surprising “Barkly” with a leash & collar.
I particularly like the way Max went completely ass-over-teakettle in the linked strip.
Yes… The sad thing is, that WOULD explain so many things…
You remembered the bandage! Excellent!
Well, in most of the panels, at least.
The only one it does not appear in, is in the close-up done by the second unit. I am just guessing here mind, but they probably did not even get Sydney in for that shot! The lack of a pip-boy was my first clue. But you pointing out that she did not have her band-aid was the clincher. Sydney has not been to see the super-doc yet, and a burn like that takes several weeks to heal up naturally.
So it must have been a stand-in. Maybe one of those models who specialise with hand-work, for lotion adverts an the like? Or the 2nd unit director’s niece, more likely.
Sydney sure needed that medikit in her utility belt. Chaos and minor injuries follow in her footsteps.
Okay who told the comic artist we feed on concentration hell why do you think we made netflix and… ive said to much
So… How exactly is she floating upside down withoit holding an orb? Did she get a skill point I missed?
He’s picking her up by the leg just barely out of the scene on the right.
Just so. It is simply the continuation of Barkley pulling her up, as shown in the final panel, on the previous page.
I absolutely love that he clearly gets into the act by the end.
I am very impressed with Halo’s dexterity here. Simultaneous to doing her surprisingly graceful pivot, Sydney is also completely inverting her smartphone, and changing her grip, to use the buttons the other way up.
In panel 6, where Sydney is saying “OK, now do confused”, both she and the camera are oriented the normal way up, at the conclusion of her maneuver. Yet the starting position, in panel 1, clearly has the view screen oriented the same way, from our perspective. However, because Halo is upside-down there, it is actually inverted for her.
Tricky, but within the capabilities of a master nerd nerd, such as Sydney.
Or maybe Gregor the Fluffy is very good at throwing things. It’s probably a combination of both.
Actually due the auto-rotation feature, the image should be always “upside up” no matter how you turn the phone. The designers didn’t foresee situations like this, shame on them.
Also judging for the second to last panel Syd seems to be taking the photos by tapping the screen, what is common since lots of smartphones do not have physical buttons for snapshots.
So, I can’t really say that she turned the phone between panel 1 and 6. She clearly did it between panel 6 and the second to last one, though.
I still don’t get how she managed to avoid getting tangled up in the cord though?
Is it sudden? (Panel 10) Or is it super speed?
It is sudden. Regardless of whether the cause was natural or super-speed, the result was abrupt, from Ingsol’s point of view.
It is also super speed. Maxima cannot turn off any of her powers completely (except, thankfully, her nuclear bomb one). Ergo that was involved (even if the degree to which it was the major contributing factor is obviously still up for debate).
Over the years, since gaining her powers, Maxima will have learnt to slow down her speech and movements, in day-to-day interactions with others. In order that they can both understand her and do not get freaked out at her blurring when she moves.
However, in this instance, her focus was clearly elsewhere. Even though anybody could stop suddenly, like that, Maxima would likely emulate a more gradual ending normally. But clearly, in my opinion, the possible implications had her very much distracted.
Sydney’s secret power? ADHD aura.
Ooh our super cyborgs just got a four fold increase in their potential toughness!
I see that the researchers failed to announce a name for the alloy though. I hereby nominate goldium.
Obvious though it is, it is possible that such has not been publicly suggested yet. If so, when distant researchers, try to find the first use of the term, hopefully they will stumble across this entry, and I will get a tiny footnote in a history ebook.
*tries out various poses, in case photographs need to be taken, or sculptures made, to record the event*
And there is a new darkest color to make them more scary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP0rH8IR22c
An awesome material for style-conscious ninjas to consider.
Alright, penguin soldiers, fall in! Time to try out your new vantablack penguin suits. Only use these for formal occasions mind. You would stand out, even more than normal, if you go waddling round in the Antarctic wearing these!
…I want…
Gold & Titanium alloy. Well, so long as they are making the new stuff out of cheap metals. :)
Yea, not too likely to get full-body cyborgs, with your average household budget. Of course super-villains need a motive for all that bank robbing.
Oooh, this gives good James Bond potential too. Just imagine the goldium smile of Jaws Junior!
Ah, yes. Conceived shortly after the end of Moonraker (1979). That would make him in his late 30’s now?
I hope that chemist readers will want to investigate the most important potential alloy which could come about from this If we are able to combine goldium with transparent aluminium! Provided the complications of combining a crystalline substance with conventional metals can be overcome, of course.
Just think about it. Our cyborgs could have transparent skulls and chests. Allowing us to see their interesting internal organs. But without compromising their protective properties.
Well, except for opening up the possibility of sunburnt internal organs…
But, hey, great for vampire cyborgs!
#Hilarious
See, the trick is to establish a space based reflection system so you can make use of the parasited attention. But that’s advanced ADHD management that I’m still getting the hang of controlling.
I think that is what Tony Stark did with his global satellite array. It picks up all the thought power and beams it back to him. That is how he does his super-genius designs and projects. As for the extra ADHD in the mix, you may have noticed Stark can be a little flighty at times.
Tony’s flightiness comes from his suits.
Congratulations Keith, had I not just noticed DaveB‘s comment, at the foot of his blog, I would not have realised that he did not colour this page.
Kudos, on a job well done. Especially given how richly detailed the art is.
I am wondering if Ingsol might get jealous of Sydney’s attention on Gregor. He hardly spoke to her before she went all photographer on Gregor. Is Ingsol feeling left out? Should Sydney take some pictures of him? Do vampires even show up on cameras in this universe?
Sydney did not make as much of a fuss about it, but she did take a photo of Ingsol. As you can see, in panel 5, her smartphone’s camera did display him successfully. This does not necessarily mean that Vampires can be seen in mirrors, in the Grrlverse mind. Simply because that kind of camera does not use mirrors.
I do not think Igsol is too fussed about the situation. Given that he deliberately goaded Gregor into wolfing out, by questioning his strength and poking fun at his age. In my opinion, he is relieved to have shifted Sydney’s attention away from himself.
But, yea, despite the other indicators to the contrary. his final line does leave the option of him feeling a bit jealous. Gregor seems to have gotten over the worst of his irritation, and appears to start enjoying going along with the photo-shoot, right at the end.
Alternatively he has seen that his goading, and Gregor’s vehement disapproval, have run their course, so simply wants to move things along.
On a totally different tact. Several days later, near Archon headquarters, Peggy, Sydney and Pixie are coming back from a night out. Sydney is wearing Tubey™ across her back, with the balls inside.
Pixie: … did he have to card all of us?
Peggy: Well, we aren’t that much older than minimum drinking age.
Sydney: Besides, there are lots of teenage girls that are taller than us. They have to make sure.
Pixie: I meant that I have been going there for over a year. Surely they know how old I am by now.
Peggy: New bouncer?
Sydney: Oh, that’s why you got served your drink without having to ask; you must always order the same thing every time you go there. I thought you just talked very quietly, which is what I thought was the reason I couldn’t hear Hmmph …
[ The three ladies are grabbed from behind, with a hand across the mouths and around the bellies, and then dragged into an alley, where three more men are waiting. ]
Man 1: Look what we found boys! We are going to have fun tonight.
[ Peggy nods to the other two women, then kicks off her right boot and jams the sharp spike of her artificial foot into the foot of the man holding her. When he releases her to start screaming, she swings around and hits him with a roundhouse throat-chip. He goes down and is no longer screaming, just occasionally whimpering. ]
[ Pixie slips down and out of the man’s grasp, executing a spinning foot-sweep on him at the same time, sending him sprawling. ]
[ Halo’s orbs come flying up out of Tubey™, popping the lid open. The man is startled as the orbs go flying up right beside his head. The orbs start circling her and her assailant, then move in to smack him in the shoulders and head a few times. This causes him to loosen his grip and allows her the room to perform her famous move: Equalizer kick, tongue-grab, face-first snap-mare flip, except she can’t get enough purchase on his tongue, so she grabs his lower jaw through his mouth instead. ]
Peggy: You boys what to play too? By the way, we are members of an elite law-enforcement squad and you are under arrest for assault.
Pixie: You remember that press conference last week, where they blew up a tank, like half a dozen ways? That was us. [ Points to Halo ] Well her, anyway.
Sydney: [ Big Grin ] Which reminds me, you guys have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you do say may be recorded and used as evidence against you in a court of law. You have the right to hire a lawyer, get advice from that lawyer and have that lawyer present during any questioning. If you can not afford a lawyer, the court may appoint a lawyer for you at no cost to yourself. Do you guys understand these rights as I have recited them to you?
Men: Moan
Peggy: Way to go. You got it perfect this time. Arianna will be so proud.
[ Peggy pulls her phone out of her purse ]
Peggy: Good evening, Dispatcher. My name is Lt. Margret Kessler, with Archon. Myself and two of my colleges have been assaulted by 3 men in an alley on the south side of Globe Drive between White Street and Jameson Road. They do not appear to be in our jurisdiction, so we would like to turn them over to you. … No ma’am. I do not give out that information over the phone. … Yes ma’am, the buildings in the area are still standing. In fact I see no damage beyond what was here when we got pulled in here. You may need a party wagon for these guys. … We have arrested them and informed them of their rights.
[ Sydney and Pixie start assessing the men that had grabbed them. The other three men stand several feet away, stunned by the fast action to disable their friends. ]
Pixie: Do have any quick-cuffs in your purse?
Sydney: Not yet. Give me a second. [ Presses the side of her neck. ] Sydney to Harem. You got your ears on?
Man 4: Now, while they are not paying attention. [ The other three men rush the ladies. ]
Meanwhile, back at Archon headquarters (said like “Meanwhile, Back at the Hall of Justice” from Super-Friends):
Harem: [ Running into Max’s office. Max is sitting behind her desk. Arianna and Sandy are sitting on chairs around the desk. ] Hey boss! Sydney, Peggy and Pixie just got attacked on the way back.
Max: What?! When did it happen? And we need to talk again about entering closed doors without knocking.
Arianna: Halo got attacked? Oh, no. What do I have to fix?
Harem: Just now, but its pretty much over. Oh, it’s actually starting up again. … Never mind. It’s over. Peggy is on the phone with 911 to turn these guys over to the local cops. As for fixing stuff, I don’t think anything needs to be done. I guess you will want to read their after-action reports to know for sure.
Thanx for explaining; the only connection I was making was to Jamie Lee Curtis’s movie by that name, which of course made no sense at all.